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The press coverage of various legal challenges to President Trump’s immigration and alien entry restrictions (“it’s not a tumor”) has increasingly focused on the judges who are adjudicating these cases in federal district courts and at the appellate level. It’s a free country with an independent and free press – at least as of today – but this press focus on the individual judges and their sponsors is unwise, especially at this precarious moment. Typical of this press approach were the many profiles of the three female district court judges who initially issued temporary orders restraining and suspending portions of Trump’s ban in the chaotic 24 hours after the administration imposed it. Those profiles, along with many written about the momentary and quickly fired acting [...]

The moment has come for Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats to be or not. They and we have experienced the result of their reasonableness. We live with the result of their appeal to the electorate on that basis. They pointed to the unconstitutional intransigence of the Republicans in their refusal to vet and vote on Judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s March 2016 nominee for the SCOTUS bench. Not only did the voters say “so what” but implicitly rewarded Mitch McConnell and his caucus for abusing the power they possessed to deprive Obama and progressive America of a pivotal seat on the high court – one the constitution and 227 years of precedent strongly argue was their right. Time after time the Democrats have been [...]

Last week the New York Times published its version of a current Trump-related ubiquitous press exercise, self-consciously examining how to characterize the president's constant expression of untruths and implicitly also questioning what to call him - the one who says , honks and tweets them. The Times has regularly and bravely published headlines and articles that say Trump "lies" and has "lied." (The paper's bravery is selective since in the same piece it described Bill Clinton's statement to the nation about not having sex with his intern as "dissembl[ing], a fancy circumlocution for lying.) Other media outlets, such as National Public Radio, have intentionally refrained from using L words, going instead with many F words. "Fabrication" not among them, though it may best describe Trump's [...]

This week we begin to find out which of President Trump’s campaign and transition promises are real, which just bombast or some combination. A number involved abortion, including promises to place “pro-life” justices on SCOTUS, deprive Planned Parenthood of any federal funding, sign legislation further restricting pregnant women’s choices and his statement that “there has to be some form [of punishment] for women” who obtain an abortion. Just in time for Trump’s inauguration, results were reported of the most comprehensive recent survey of lawful abortions in the United States. The Guttmacher Institute’s study revealed that in 2014 the abortion rate declined to its lowest level since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, that ruled unconstitutional outright bans and severe restrictions on abortion in many and [...]

Trump on Streep was dead wrong. The true “Hillary flunky” is Paul Krugman, who in his January 16th op-ed "With All Due Disrespect" predictably echoed the DNC party line about the Congressman John Lewis – PE Trump exchange, that has resulted in a burgeoning parade of house members announcing they will emulate the Georgia civil rights icon and boycott the inauguration this coming Black Friday. One of those sheep is my representative, Jerry Nadler. Trump’s attack on Lewis was vintage – short, nasty, brutish and devoid of fact. It followed Lewis’ decision, announced on Meet the Press, not about the self-evident Trump flaws, and the dangers that his likely short presidency will bring to our nation. Instead Lewis delivered a verdict of illegitimacy to the [...]

The contrast between the outgoing and incoming presidents during their swan and maiden performances on January 10 and 11 was the most severe your blogger and most Americans have ever experienced. Not saying who appeared smarter, more dignified, gracious, germaphobic, etc. – just that the distance in every area seemed to span light years. In his, PE Trump had assistance, including from Sheri Dillon of the prestigious law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. We know it’s “prestigious” because Trump’s communications director, Sean Spicer, told us so and last year Morgan, Lewis was named “Russia Law Firm of the Year” by Chambers & Partners, a legal rating service. In the course of explaining why the conflict of interest and ethics arrangements that she and others at [...]

If Jeff Sessions is the same man rejected for a federal judgeship in 1986 and that is powerfully demonstrated, he should and just possibly might be denied confirmation as attorney general. But, if he’s changed in those 30 plus years, there’s not only no chance of rejection but no reason consistent with the democratic process that resulted in his nomination. Elections have consequences and Sessions may be the most qualified of Trump’s designees, though the last person I would want to head the DOJ. Sessions’ 1985 failed prosecution of black voting rights activists and then recent acts of racial insensitivity sealed his fate in 1986. But his tenure as U.S. Attorney, as Alabama’s Attorney General and in the United States Senate demonstrate his qualifications to [...]

Hopelessly Liberal’s November 23rd post offered some shelter from the coming storm, in state governments’ ability to advance progressive programs while we “figure out what the hell is going on” in Washington.¹ By virtue of its major nation-sized economy and progressive leadership, California is best situated to help hold things together. But New York, encompassing the world’s capital, is not merely chopped liver. Your blogger had two substantial tours in its government, his window faces the Chrysler Building and HL will from time to time chronicle whether and how New York acquits itself in this regard during the next four years – but sticks with its prediction that Trump will be knocked out no later than the third round. HL 12/12/16. At the end of [...]

In the mid-1980s, before most could envision the Soviet Union’s collapse, William F. Buckley, National Review publisher and conservative icon, observed that without its military the U.S.S.R. was “a third-world country, sort of an India of the North.” Buckley was prescient and deadly accurate, about the Soviets at least. Three decades on, the news is filled with claims and fears that the Russia remnant of the Soviet Union is reclaiming super-power status, having “earned” it assisting Bashar al-Assad’s atrocities against Syrian civilians, reseizing Crimea from the former Ukrainian Socialist Republic, hacking America’s computers and meddling in our election. Russia and its leader, Putin, appear to command the respect, applause and approval of America’s imminent leader. In fact and truth Russia, following a decade of experimentation [...]

This issue is so polarizing that the blogger must establish his admiration for the president before writing about it. It, this monumental and regrettable gift President Obama handed PE Trump with America’s abstention on the UN resolution condemning Israel’s settlement policy. I love our president, have been proud, and felt fortunate every day, including this one, that he leads our nation. In a New York Times article I once referred to myself as “Obama Man.” When interviewed and passed over for a position by his White House appointments office several years ago, I answered the question of whether something else interested me with “I’ll clean the latrine for this guy” and I would. The president’s demeanor had been most nearly perfect throughout 2016 and never [...]

About Lloyd

Lloyd is a litigator and author whose work in antitrust and civil liberties law and poor people’s advocacy in and opposed to government involves many important, controversial and heavily reported legal, political and business trends in America from the late 1960s to the present.